This is the sentiment of what health officials at some clinics in Gauteng are telling mothers and patients looking for treatment.
A KayaNews investigation has uncovered that the rights of patients are being violated at different clinics across the province.
What was meant to be an ordinary day of scheduled immunisation for an Eldorado Park mother turned into despair a few weeks ago when she was refused medical assistance because she would not have an HIV test taken.
All this happened at the local clinic in Eldorado Park Extension 9.
The mother was told that only infants whose mothers test for HIV will be given their scheduled immunisations.
The nurse's utterances were backed up by a handwritten sign which was placed on the clerk's desk.
When questioned about the reasons for the forced testing, the nursing staff shifted the blame onto clinic management saying they were merely following protocol and guidelines given to them.
The young mother was forced to take her child to another local clinic to receive his immunisation injections after she refused to take the test.
"I was very upset about the situation and I called my husband to fetch me so we could take our son to another health facility," the mother explained.
A similar situation was later uncovered at the Olifantsfontein clinic near Midrand as well as the Hillbrow Clinic in Johannesburg.
"Health officials send us away if we do not want to take the test," one mother explains. "We are afraid to ask too many questions because we fear that we will be victimised by the nurses and then our children will not get immunised. So we end up just taking the test," she added.
According to the Constitution, every South African has the right to access to healthcare services.
This means that refusing medical assistance to patients on the basis that the local clinics are alleged to be using is a violation of the rights set out in the Constitution.
It has long been part of South African law that a patient must provide informed consent for all medical treatment performed on him/her.
Informed consent means that sufficient information is provided to enable the patient to make an informed decision, and that the patient actually understands the information and implications of acting on that information.
In short, the consent must be voluntary and without constraint.
The allegations against these four health facilities suggest that this is not being taken into consideration when these forced tests are being conducted.
The Gauteng Health department has now launched an investigation into the matter saying its mandate is not to force anyone to take an HIV test.
They have subsequently given a number out where people can lay formal complaints.
The department's spokesperson, Steve Mabona, says, "We are currently conducting an investigation into the matter but we discourage any health official from forcing patients to take HIV tests as this needs to be done on a voluntary basis.
"We have many education programmes in place that relate to HIV/AIDS and our patients need to be well informed of their rights when it comes to testing of any sort," he added.
Mabona also urged patients who experience incidents of this nature to report the health officials involved to the clinic management.
KayaNews is still waiting for an official response from health minister Aaron Motsoaledi who is currently out of the country.
